With the advent of Digital Television (DTV) comes the ability to create interactive TV (ITV) programming. The “old” analogue set-top box cable units are being phased out and replaced by more robust digital units. Digital cable head-ends and their supporting infrastructure have made it possible to create and deploy TV applications. These applications allow the viewer to purchase movies on demand, record TV programs, etc.
Television broadcast and cable systems have largely been broadcast systems in which all the users receive the same content and cannot interact with the received content. However, it would be desirable to combine interactive content with television programming to allow the user to receive content with which the user can interact. In addition, by making the interactive content supplementary to the television programming, it may be possible to increase the number of users who watch the televisions program.
In many instances users who are watching a television program often consider the commercials as an opportunity to visit the bathroom, leave the viewing area to get food, or perform some other task other than watching the commercial. Additionally, many users record television programming with a digital video recorder (e.g., Tivo®) and later watch the programming at the user's convenience. When watching a recorded program, many users simply fast forward through the commercials without watching them. Consequently, it would be desirable to provide the uses with an incentive to watch the commercials.
In addition, with broadcast systems, advertisers who purchase slots for television commercials have no means of knowing how many users watched their commercial. Consequently, it would be desirable to provide to provide advertisers with an indication of the number of users (and which users) watched their commercials.
One or more embodiments of the present invention may provide these and other advantages over the prior art.